Sunday, January 05, 2014

What a Series !!!!

Whew! I have just finished watching the finish of a fantastic cricket series, the Ashes Down Under. For those who don't know much about cricket, it is (in the opinion of this small bear and his Oldies) the most skillful game in the world, and the Ashes tests between Australia and England are the games that generate the most fanatical excitement. The Ashes are supposed to be in an Urn containing the burnt remains of the stumps used in the first test series between the two countries, but that is not so. In fact the Ashes Urn is more of a notional prize. For a good story on how a joke by a newspaper reporter in 1882 has generated the most contested prize in cricket, just Google "the Ashes". Anyhow, since 1882 there have been 69 test series (a test is a 5-day game), each test series being 3 or 5 games. Australia has won 33 series, England 31, and 5 have been drawn. Last year our team did very badly in a short Ashes series held in England, beaten 3 to 0. The English press has been giving Australian cricket a bad time ever since. Now justice has triumphed and the Ashes have returned to Australia. The series that finished this afternoon was a complete whitewash of the English team. We thumped them 5 to 0 !!! Aussie cricket is back on top. Any team that is supported by small bears just has to be No.1. And I have my own Bart-size replica of that famous Urn. Now I can get away from the TV and get back to preparing more posts about last year's travels.